Headline, November 04 2024/ ''' MIS GUIDED MIX '''

''' MIS GUIDED MIX '''

IF THE MISCHIEF MAKERS OF THE WORLD had scripted the collapse of decency and cooperation in the world, they could not have come up with more harrowing manipulations of facts and truth.

IN THE AGE OF FAKE NEWS and its proliferation on social media - very serious 'societal issues' can become trivialised by the unwarranted anger of '' useful idiots '' who end up harming the cause more than helping it.

MISGUIDED OUTRAGE : On many occasions it just takes a single incident to trigger riots. The incident can be actual - or overly exaggerated and in some cases, entirely fictional.

The event that sparked the beginning of the Arab Spring riots in Tunisia in 2010 was quite real. A desperate street vendor did actually set himself on fire after being humiliated by the police.

This incident led to pent up social, economic and political frustrations in Tunisian society coming to the surface as collective rage against the government.

However, on some occasions, news of actual incidents, as it travels, especially on social media, can mutate.

Last July in Southport, England, a British-Rwandan teen stabbed to death young girls. By the time the news of the attack hit social media sites, the murderer had been transformed into a '' radical Muslim refugee.''

The mutated telling of the incident sparked widespread riots that specifically targeted British-Muslims who had no involvement whatsoever in the stabbings.

Then there is news that sparks outrage but is entirely fictional. In 2016, a man in Washington D.C. barged into a pizza place and fired three shots from an assault rifle. 

After the man was arrested, he told the police that he was '' investigating '' information he had come across on certain news websites, which claimed that lthe pizza joint was harbouring young children being abused by Democratic Party members. He insisted that the members were part of a sinister sex-trafficking ring.

Last week, students of some colleges in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Pakistan rioted as news of a female student being raped in a college basement spread. 

An inquiry by the Punjab government and investigation by most mainstream media outlets established that the story was fake. But this did not stop the students from rioting - even when the parents of the girl who was supposedly abused confirmed that she wasn't.

Sometimes, facts are not enough to calm the outraged - especially those who are angered by a fictional incident that for various reasons, they so want to believe in.

When the pizza joint man was arrested, various far-right websites claimed that the shoot-out was staged by the government to obscure the '' ugly truth '' about Democratic Party members.

Similarly, those egging the students on in Punjab through social media continued to insist that the Punjab government was trying to hide the rape incident through lies and other unsavoury tactics.

But why do so many people refuse to accept even the starkest evidence that debunks what they believe in?

It is much simpler to determine the emotional response of people who react to actual events. As mentioned, these events trigger pent-up frustrations that come to the surface in the form of collective rage.

In 1967, a student was killed in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by the police. This was an actual event. The response to the killing snowballed into becoming an all-out movement against the Ayub Khan dictatorship.

The regime had failed to address certain problematic outcomes of rapid industrialisation, population growth and urbanisation, leaving scores of young Pakistanis feeling ignored and frustrated.

If there is enough resentment in large sections of the society, then there will be unrest, even if it is instigated by false information.

Anti-immigrant sentiments in various European countries have been on the rise, especially during the increasing electoral influence of populist far-right groups. So rumours, fake news and false information about crimes and misdeeds of immigrants [ especially refugees ] are instantly lapped up as facts.

These have also led to riots and violence despite being debunked. The prevailing resentment against [ mostly non-white ] immigrants in many segments greatly facilitates this.

The Publishing on Life and World, continues. The World Students Society thanks Nadeem F. Paracha.

With most respectful dedication to Mankind, Leaders, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on !WOW! - the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless